Joanna Almeida, ScD, a recent graduate of HSPH and current postdoctoral fellow at Northeastern University, worked with Renee M. Johnson at HYVPC to write a paper on peer maltreatment based on sexual orientation, and with Matthew Miller on a paper about self-injury among immigrants. The former paper was published in the Journal of Youth & Adolescence, and the latter has been accepted for publication in Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior. Dr. Almeida and Dr. Johnson recently submitted a manuscript about peer violence among immigrants, it is currently under review at the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Suchita Batwara, MD, MPH wrote her thesis on the relationship between acculturation, adult support, and violence perpetration among immigrants using BYS 2008 data.

Heather McCauley, ScM, was supported and mentored to coordinate a large RCT study of violence prevention in family planning clinics in northern California.

Dan Dao, a 2009 graduate of the MPH at Boston University School of Public Health, completed a research practicum at HYVPC, with Renee M. Johnson as his supervisor. He helped clean data from the Boston Youth Survey and prepare it for analysis. Mr. Dao is currently working as an injury epidemiologist at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Michele Decker, ScD, MPH, was mentored towards independent research in the areas of violence and sex trade among adolescents. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in the Dept. of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health.

Dustin Duncan, a doctoral candidate at HSPH, recently published a paper examining the association between exposure to neighborhood violence and BMI in BMC Public Health under the direction of Dr. Renee M. Johnson. Dustin served as a research assistant with HYVPC; in this role he delineated boundaries of neighborhood clusters. This involved interviewing the HYVPC community partners and other neighborhood informants, showing them maps of their neighborhood and getting their opinions on where to draw sub-neighborhood boundaries. Finally, Mr. Duncan is using data from the BYS 2008 in his dissertation, which will investigate neighborhood social disorder and BMI.

Erin Dunn, a doctoral candidate at HSPH, has collaborated with Dr. Renee M. Johnson on several papers and publications addressing bullying and depressive symptoms among adolescents, using data from the BYS 2008. Along with Dr. Jennifer Greif Green and Dr. Johnson, Ms. Dunn has two papers that have been conditionally accepted for publication in the Journal of School Violence, and one that is under review at Prevention Science.

Jennifer Greif Green, PhD, is currently finishing up a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Dept. of Health Care Policy. She has accepted a position as Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Education, and will begin in the fall. Dr. Green has worked collaboratively with Dr. Johnson and Ms. Erin Dunn on papers addressing bullying and depressive symptoms, using data from the BYS 2008. Dr. Green has two papers that have been conditionally accepted for publication in the Journal of School Violence (she is the first author on one and Dr. Renee M. Johnson is the first author on the other); she is also a co-author on a manuscript led by Ms. Erin Dunn that is under review at Prevention Science.

Jhumka Gupta, ScD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Yale School of Public Health, graduated in 2007 from Harvard School of Public Health. Although she is at Yale, Dr. Gupta still collaborates with HYVPC investigators on manuscripts using BYS 2008 data. Most recently, she contributed to a paper, led by Dr. Joanna Almeida, that addressed violence perpetration among immigrants. That manuscript is currently under review at the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Eleonora Jimenez, SM student was advised regarding her work on violence and HIV in Mexico.

Courtenay Kessler, SM student was advised by Dr. Molnar in the Society, Human Development and Health department. She is currently a research fellow with the Milwaukee Department of Public Health. She is still collaborating on a paper on the association between sexual violence and violent behavior among adolescents in Boston using the Boston Youth Survey data.

Katelyn Mack, SM student, was funded and mentored regarding participation in research on sex trafficking and violence against young girls in Managua, Nicaragua.

Mariah McNamara MD, MPH Department of Emergency Medicine University of Massachusetts. Although she completed her MPH at HSPH in 2008, Dr. McNamara still collaborates with HYVPC investigators on manuscripts using BYS 2008 data. Most recently, she contributed to a paper, led by Dr. Joanna Almeida,that addressed violence perpetration among immigrants. That manuscript is currently under review at the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Bernice Raveche, doctoral candidate in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health is being mentored by Dr. Miller. She is exploring the relationship between weight-based discrimination and suicide related outcomes by analyzing data from the BYS 2008.

Elizabeth Reed ScD, post-doctorate, was mentored in her initial independent research efforts in the area of adolescent dating violence.

Shagun Sabarwal, MS, ScD student was funded and advised regarding both qualitative and quantitative analyses of data from a study of violence and maternal/child health in Mumbai, India.

Mary-Mildred Stith, a 2008 graduate of the MS program in quantitative sciences at Columbia University, used BYS 2006 data in her master’s thesis. In it, she examined the association between family communication and adolescent risk behaviors (including violence). Dr. Renee M. Johnson was a second reader on her thesis. She is in the process of applying to several graduate programs for psychology.

Nancy Street, a doctoral candidate at HSPH, is using data from the BYS 2008 to examine the association of insufficient sleep with BMI and perpetration of youth violence.

Heather Zaykowski, a graduate student pursing a Ph.D. in criminology at the University of Delaware, used the BYS data for a paper on social disorganization presented at the American Society of Criminology, and possibly for her dissertation.

IV. Students who HYVPC recruited to work with our Community Partners (since 2005)